Moving Us Forward

We face real challenges at home and around the world. We want and need our elected leaders to work together to find solutions to our shared problems, but Washington is not working as it should. Partisanship has led to gridlock, politicians refuse to work across party lines, and we all pay the price. I launched this campaign because we need new leaders in Washington who will put people above politics and deliver results.

Houstonians are hardworking, welcoming, innovative, and caring. We are problem solvers. We are big thinkers. We are collaborators. And we are facing real challenges. We need everyone—Democrats and Republicans—to participate as we address our community’s challenges. While we may not always agree on exactly how to overcome each challenge, we can all agree that our elected representatives should work together to find solutions—and to care more about the people they represent than their political parties.

It is time for Texas’ 7th Congressional District to have a representative who knows who we are, understands our challenges, protects what we have worked for, ensures we stay healthy, and keeps us safe.

These principles guide my vision for the district and the policy priorities we will address in our campaign.

Understanding our challenges means making our city more resilient by bolstering infrastructure to keep us safe from increasing and more frequent weather events, and partnering with our local agencies to make smart investments in mass transit. It means encouraging federal revitalization programs that provide high-risk communities like ours with the resources we need to be prepared for, and reduce the costs of, the next storm; passing a federal infrastructure investment plan that puts money into infrastructure improvements while creating local jobs; and working with METRO to expand our transit system to keep our workforce—and our economy—moving forward. Read more.

Knowing who we are means knowing how our diverse, hard-working community functions and ensuring that its values are protected. This means understanding our economy and finding ways to remain global leaders. It means working with our institutions and companies to create and increase access to work training programs for our workforce; increasing access to capital and credit for Texans who want to start or expand their own businesses, so businesses of all sizes and in all sectors thrive; and passing equitable tax reform that encourages domestic job growth rather than incentives that promote the outsourcing of jobs and investments that should be kept in Houston.

Protecting what we have worked for. For generations, Americans have worked for progress. This progress takes many forms—from a secure and healthy retirement to a free and equal society. We must protect what we have worked for, and keep our country moving forward. This means protecting Social Security and Medicare—keeping our promise to retired Americans and preserving the integrity of the programs for those who pay into them now. It also means protecting voting rights, civil rights, women’s rights, and so many other things Americans have worked so hard to achieve. Read more.

Ensuring we stay healthy means knowing that our residents are rightly concerned about access to and affordability of health care. Congress is not helping. We stay healthy by reversing the impact of reckless partisanship and working with both parties to bring down the cost of health care by introducing common-sense, cost-saving measures like allowing Medicare to negotiate with drug companies to lower prescription drug prices; to defend women’s access to reproductive health care; and to fight any attempt to eliminate protections for people with pre-existing conditions like cancer, diabetes, or asthma. Read more.

Keeping us safemeans making smart policy and enforcing it by working with and across our diverse community. It means strengthening our border security by making smart investments in Border Patrol and new technologies; by reforming our immigration laws to protect Dreamers and those who follow the law and contribute to our economy; by reducing gun violence; by making sure law enforcement, including ICE, can do its job to keep our communities safe; and by ensuring our justice system is efficient and fair. It means having leaders who engage in thoughtful foreign policy and diplomacy abroad to help keep us safe at home. Read more.